When I started blogging some months back (and to date) 'Feeds' were yet another thing that boggled me. I in my limited understanding of the phenomenon, assumed that if I put all possible widgets available on my site, suddenly people will start subscribing to my feeds and I'll be a million hits blog. I am extremely embarrassed to report that so far in 6 odd months of existence I have a grand total of ZERO followers and 3 Feedburner hits!!
This got me thinking... obviously I wasn't doing something right and this post is an attempt to help myself while hopefully helping you. The following is my take on simplifying this in hope that things will get better (even one follower would be a face saver - lol).
What are Feeds?
Feeds are simply a way of getting your content to people rather than getting people to your content. Simply stating if someone subscribes to your feed, the don't necessarily need to come to your site each time and can simple read what going on through their blog readers, some designated website or even through email.
What is RSS?
Well, RSS could potentially be RDF Site Summary, Real Site Summary OR Really Simple Syndication). Essentially, An RSS document is popularly known as a... FEED!
How do I know it a Site has Feeds?
Pretty simple, this little orange button is the universal sign for Feeds... whereever it is displayed, you know this site has subscribe-able feeds
How do I make feeds for my Blog?
Well the joy of using a popular platform such as blogger, wordpress etc is that they will do the dirty work for you and all you have to do is 'enable' the feeds through your dashboard.
How does a Reader read a feed?
There are over 2,000 different types of News Aggregation or Pod Casters so really choosing one is up to you. If you're a google lover like me, you would probably enjoy 'Google Reader' (again like me) where you can subscribe to any amount of feeds and organize them so essentially going to 200 different blogs, they forward all their new articles to my Reader.
Why is a Feed Reader any good?
Well, Ardent online readers are encouraged to use Feed Readers because it saves them from a cluttered inbox or the pain of going to multiple sites.
Whats a Feed Burner?
Feed Burner is there to help you understand your Readers... Essentially it tells you how many people have subscribed to your blog and through which service. Note to Google Lovers: This service is now also owned by google :P
What's the difference between RSS and Atom?
For all practical purposes, RSS and Atom are the same. They're technologies developed to get your favorite content to you rather than you going to the content. Atom was developed essentially as an alternative to RSS which was considered to lack on-going innovation. In my experience, I can't tell much difference :)
So if Feeds are great, why should one have 'Subscribe via Email' option on a Blog?
Well lets just say not everyone would have subscribed to 200+ blogs like yours truly, some close friends etc who are there to support or some fans who are there only for you may not like using a different service such as a reader and might prefer getting updates in their email... Don't forget them :) they want to keep a tab on you even though they're not blog-dicted.
Feeds vs. Email, Privacy?
A lot of readers wouldn't want to share their email addresses which is why Feeds continue to grow in popularity.
Who are 'Followers'?
You may have noticed the 'Followers' Widget in Blogger. Followers are merely people who subscribe to your blog and flaunt being a part of that community
Difference between Followers and Subscribers?
Why isn't life any simpler?? Subscribers read your blog along with other blogs through a Site Reader while followers have more to do with your blog only...
Are my Readers hooked for life?
Well, You wish! Email Subscribes can Unsubscribe merely by a click on the link under their email and a feed can as easily be deleted from the Reader Software. Better have great content to make people stick!
Having settled all that, What are Digg, De.Li.Cious, StumbleUpon etc??
Complicate your life further, why don't you... But since you're curious, here goes nothing. All these services are called 'Social Bookmarkers'.
Digg is a way to share all that you think is 'cool' - essentially, all that you dig (duh!). The more people 'Digg' an article or a Site, the more likely is it to generate traffic. Anyone with a Digg account can share what they think is cool and other Digg readers are likely to latch onto it.
Delicious stores your web bookmarks online, so you can access them from where ever you might be. Simply log in add, organize or go through your favourite web bookmarks.
Long story short, such services are Facebook for Blog Readers where they share what they like with others Blog Readers.
So after all is said and done, this is what I am about to do with My Site.
1. Add the Feeds Widget
2. Add Subscribe via Email Widget
3. Log in to Google Feedburner and subscribe to the service
I'm passing on the following for now only, to keep things simple.
1. Followers
2. Digg and Delicious
Though I have to admit I am severely tempted by Digg after reading my own explanation on it.
Sigh anyway, I'll wrap this mother of all articles and hope it helped simplify things for you.
This got me thinking... obviously I wasn't doing something right and this post is an attempt to help myself while hopefully helping you. The following is my take on simplifying this in hope that things will get better (even one follower would be a face saver - lol).
What are Feeds?
Feeds are simply a way of getting your content to people rather than getting people to your content. Simply stating if someone subscribes to your feed, the don't necessarily need to come to your site each time and can simple read what going on through their blog readers, some designated website or even through email.
What is RSS?
Well, RSS could potentially be RDF Site Summary, Real Site Summary OR Really Simple Syndication). Essentially, An RSS document is popularly known as a... FEED!
How do I know it a Site has Feeds?
Pretty simple, this little orange button is the universal sign for Feeds... whereever it is displayed, you know this site has subscribe-able feeds
How do I make feeds for my Blog?
Well the joy of using a popular platform such as blogger, wordpress etc is that they will do the dirty work for you and all you have to do is 'enable' the feeds through your dashboard.
How does a Reader read a feed?
There are over 2,000 different types of News Aggregation or Pod Casters so really choosing one is up to you. If you're a google lover like me, you would probably enjoy 'Google Reader' (again like me) where you can subscribe to any amount of feeds and organize them so essentially going to 200 different blogs, they forward all their new articles to my Reader.
Why is a Feed Reader any good?
Well, Ardent online readers are encouraged to use Feed Readers because it saves them from a cluttered inbox or the pain of going to multiple sites.
Whats a Feed Burner?
Feed Burner is there to help you understand your Readers... Essentially it tells you how many people have subscribed to your blog and through which service. Note to Google Lovers: This service is now also owned by google :P
What's the difference between RSS and Atom?
For all practical purposes, RSS and Atom are the same. They're technologies developed to get your favorite content to you rather than you going to the content. Atom was developed essentially as an alternative to RSS which was considered to lack on-going innovation. In my experience, I can't tell much difference :)
So if Feeds are great, why should one have 'Subscribe via Email' option on a Blog?
Well lets just say not everyone would have subscribed to 200+ blogs like yours truly, some close friends etc who are there to support or some fans who are there only for you may not like using a different service such as a reader and might prefer getting updates in their email... Don't forget them :) they want to keep a tab on you even though they're not blog-dicted.
Feeds vs. Email, Privacy?
A lot of readers wouldn't want to share their email addresses which is why Feeds continue to grow in popularity.
Who are 'Followers'?
You may have noticed the 'Followers' Widget in Blogger. Followers are merely people who subscribe to your blog and flaunt being a part of that community
Difference between Followers and Subscribers?
Why isn't life any simpler?? Subscribers read your blog along with other blogs through a Site Reader while followers have more to do with your blog only...
Are my Readers hooked for life?
Well, You wish! Email Subscribes can Unsubscribe merely by a click on the link under their email and a feed can as easily be deleted from the Reader Software. Better have great content to make people stick!
Having settled all that, What are Digg, De.Li.Cious, StumbleUpon etc??
Complicate your life further, why don't you... But since you're curious, here goes nothing. All these services are called 'Social Bookmarkers'.
Digg is a way to share all that you think is 'cool' - essentially, all that you dig (duh!). The more people 'Digg' an article or a Site, the more likely is it to generate traffic. Anyone with a Digg account can share what they think is cool and other Digg readers are likely to latch onto it.
Delicious stores your web bookmarks online, so you can access them from where ever you might be. Simply log in add, organize or go through your favourite web bookmarks.
Long story short, such services are Facebook for Blog Readers where they share what they like with others Blog Readers.
So after all is said and done, this is what I am about to do with My Site.
1. Add the Feeds Widget
2. Add Subscribe via Email Widget
3. Log in to Google Feedburner and subscribe to the service
I'm passing on the following for now only, to keep things simple.
1. Followers
2. Digg and Delicious
Though I have to admit I am severely tempted by Digg after reading my own explanation on it.
Sigh anyway, I'll wrap this mother of all articles and hope it helped simplify things for you.
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